Saison Cottage House Saison

You were correct it is A-Z-scoob, thanks for the good review, I have forwarded the video off to some friends! I love the cap going flying, that's a well carbed saison!

azscoob said:

Add the honey now, that should bring it closer to balanced, you should be good to go otherwise.

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Without honey, the OG will be down and the FG will be up from the recipe. It actually may mot be perceived as hoppier with the residual sugars. If you add the honey, it will increase your gravity, then dry it out once fermented.

I actually missed OG myself, but im hoping the lower abv only makes it more sessionable.

So I ended up getting impatient and bottling the bastard. It dropped to 1.003 - so I was only a point off from the recipe. The dang thing was in the fermenter for a full month and was still active....crazy.

I bottled it about a week ago. Couldn't help myself and popped a bottle after only 4 days. Holy crap is this good. I mean, amazingly good. I was skeptical based on the wort taste, but it really turned out incredible. A nice orange-ish hew. Spicy on the palate. Kinda a cross between a citrusy Hefe and sour.

Followed OP's recipe exactly. Wouldnt make a change.

I Just got into AG brewing and this Saison recipe is exactly what I was looking for. Brewed ten gallons of this yesterday. I've got one carboy fermenting with Wyeast 3711 French Saison, the other with 3724 Belgian Saison. Should be a good comparison on yeasts. OG was 1.055 and after 12 hours is already bubbling like crazy!

8/26: I'm 12 days into fermentation and the gravity of the 3711 batch is 1.003. The gravity of the 3724 batch is down to 1.019.

I'm moving the 3724 into a warmer temp (90 deg.) to see if things start to churn again.


9/8 update: the 3711 is still at 1.003 and the 3724 is at 1.006. Increasing the temp helped (apparently), I'm psyched!

vpuleo said:

I'm 12 days into fermentation and the gravity of the 3711 batch is 1.003. The gravity of the 3724 batch is down to 1.019.

I'm moving the 3724 into a warmer temp (90 deg.) to see if things start to churn again.

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There was an earlier post about someone in their brew club warning them off brewing a saison early in their brewing experiences.

I feel it is more the complexity in getting most saison yeasts to finish fermenting out.

With the 3711, there is almost no fussing at all, it just churns out great beer!

......so extract with grains it is.

Substituted 5.5 LBS of DME for the 2 Row, the rest of the grain bill is the same. Same with spice and honey additions.

I didn't have any Sorachi, but I had 1oz of Amarillo on hand.

I ended up with this:

.5 Amarillo FWH
1.00 Williamette FWH
.25 US Goldings FWH
30 min - .75 Williamette and .25 US Goldings
15 min - 1.00 Williamette and .5 US Goldings
5 min - .5 Amarillo

FWIW, the hops were pretty old, and I had a boilover after the FWH, so I added a bit more on the later additions.

I am also using a different yeast - WLP 568 Belgian Saison Yeast Blend

I just have regular honey, so I added a bit of Orange Zest with 5 min left in the boil.

It doesnt help that I got home late from work, am a few beers in to the night, had the boilover, and nearly ran out of propane, but we will see how this comes out!

Hi
Just brewed this last night as my second AG. the picture by the OP was just too good to pass!

my first AG was a bit of a disaster (way too much going on at the same time!) but this one went great. My first batch has a watery taste, I think its due to the fact I used 100% distilled water, so this time I made sure to buy some mineral water ( I live in China.. tap water is maybe not so good here - who knows!). The water was still pretty soft and didnt have a full list of minerals, so I added one tsp of gypsum and 1/4 tsp of table salt.

- used Cascade hops as couldn't get Sorachi
- used a the zest of one lemon steeped in a shot of vodka for a few hours (Also put the black pepper in here)
- my wife is from spain so she picked me up some Orange blossom honey from some orange farm in Valencia (nice! - and still have 0.5kg for next batch!)

I am VERY happy, I hit my OG bang on 1.061

I used the stovetop mash method, mashing on the stovetop in my 8G alu pot for an hour, using the gas to keep the temp steady.
since my lauter tun is only 5 gallons , with this amount of grain, I couldnt add more water to make the rest stage, so I just put on the gas and raised what I had to 170F.
Then poured it into my lauter tun and lautered out.

Took about 3 sparges but hit 6G then boiled for 60mins.

I made my first yeast starter, wasn't sure if it was really working but according to Palmer maybe this is because it works so fast. The guy gave me a discount on the 3711 yeast because the yeast was 5 months old already. I used a quart of wort from my previous batch and boiled it up the previous night, then cooled and pitched the yeast with a 1/4 tsp gypsum also since that wort was made with the distilled water. It was active enough. After pouring in the whole starter into the fermenter, after 9 hours, it was already developing a good head of krauesen and bubbling away. Photo attached! definately the nicest looking of my 4 batches, beautiful white head! I will keep you posted as it ferments.

Its pretty hot here, I pitched it at 75C , couldnt get it any lower as burned through all my ice stash making an ice bath for cooling. Seems to be working good enough so I'll keep it at this temp in my swamp cooler unless anyone thinks I should do otherwise.

happy brewin

PintOfPlain said:

Hi
Just brewed this last night as my second AG. the picture by the OP was just too good to pass!

my first AG was a bit of a disaster (way too much going on at the same time!) but this one went great. My first batch has a watery taste, I think its due to the fact I used 100% distilled water, so this time I made sure to buy some mineral water ( I live in China.. tap water is maybe not so good here - who knows!). The water was still pretty soft and didnt have a full list of minerals, so I added one tsp of gypsum and 1/4 tsp of table salt.

- used Cascade hops as couldn't get Sorachi
- used a the zest of one lemon steeped in a shot of vodka for a few hours (Also put the black pepper in here)
- my wife is from spain so she picked me up some Orange blossom honey from some orange farm in Valencia (nice! - and still have 0.5kg for next batch!)

I am VERY happy, I hit my OG bang on 1.061

I used the stovetop mash method, mashing on the stovetop in my 8G alu pot for an hour, using the gas to keep the temp steady.
since my lauter tun is only 5 gallons , with this amount of grain, I couldnt add more water to make the rest stage, so I just put on the gas and raised what I had to 170F.
Then poured it into my lauter tun and lautered out.

Took about 3 sparges but hit 6G then boiled for 60mins.

I made my first yeast starter, wasn't sure if it was really working but according to Palmer maybe this is because it works so fast. The guy gave me a discount on the 3711 yeast because the yeast was 5 months old already. I used a quart of wort from my previous batch and boiled it up the previous night, then cooled and pitched the yeast with a 1/4 tsp gypsum also since that wort was made with the distilled water. It was active enough. After pouring in the whole starter into the fermenter, after 9 hours, it was already developing a good head of krauesen and bubbling away. Photo attached! definately the nicest looking of my 4 batches, beautiful white head! I will keep you posted as it ferments.

Its pretty hot here, I pitched it at 75C , couldnt get it any lower as burned through all my ice stash making an ice bath for cooling. Seems to be working good enough so I'll keep it at this temp in my swamp cooler unless anyone thinks I should do otherwise.

happy brewin

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I'd say that yeast is working fine! Good job on your second AG batch!

Bottled mine up on Friday and gave it as part of a wedding gift Saturday( I keg conditioned then bottled). I bottled a few extra for a competition, homebrew club samples and personal use too. Had a friend (certified judge and brewery owner) try it and he loved it. Mine was a little closer to 8% than anticipated, due to excessive boil off, but it was still good. Definitely brewing this as a 10 gallon soon.

Finally obtained enough belgian bottles to bottle the second half of my split batch. hic! They were bottled a little over a week apart, hopefully there wont be a major difference. Since its is all in 750mL bottles, I am going to be really patient to make sure its ready(I usually cant wait and dont mind sampling some undercarbed and underconditioned beer). A solid month I think.

I'm very excited for this batch, its my first saison and both gravity samples tasted great before bottling. If I had to give one the flavor edge, it would be the Citra version over the Nelson.

Lordy, I hate the waiting part, I just kegged a batch of my mild and already want a pint. Waiting for a bottle conditioned beer to be ready has to be hell!

One week in the fermenter, already down from 1.061 to 1.008 and it still bubbling (slowly now)

I tasted the wort, it smells great, got that Belgian nose (sort of reminds of a Leffe ), but the taste wasn't so good right now

What's other peoples experience of the wort taste after one week? Mine is a big harsh. Maybe I got some tannins in that baby, I dont know, I thought I hit the temps pretty bang on.

Cheers!

PintOfPlain said:

One week in the fermenter, already down from 1.061 to 1.008 and it still bubbling (slowly now)

I tasted the wort, it smells great, got that Belgian nose (sort of reminds of a Leffe ), but the taste wasn't so good right now

What's other peoples experience of the wort taste after one week? Mine is a big harsh. Maybe I got some tannins in that baby, I dont know, I thought I hit the temps pretty bang on.

Cheers!

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I just tasted mine after almost 3 weeks in the fermenter and I am getting some 'harshness' so I can imagine that after 1 week, you would be worse off. Other than the minor harshness, it tastes pretty solid.

I would just give it time since most recommend not drinking this for at least 2 months. Out of curiousity, what temp did you ferment it at?

First of all, I just sampled the best home brew of my life. Azscoob a major brewery should be paying you royalties for this recipe. Thank you . I'm not going to reveal details from my tasting, just realize if your thinking of brewing this stop procrastinating ! Absolutely awesome!!!

barhoc11 said:

I just tasted mine after almost 3 weeks in the fermenter and I am getting some 'harshness' so I can imagine that after 1 week, you would be worse off. Other than the minor harshness, it tastes pretty solid.

I would just give it time since most recommend not drinking this for at least 2 months. Out of curiousity, what temp did you ferment it at?

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Hi. I am fermenting at 75C since the start.

ironfish said:

First of all, I just sampled the best home brew of my life. Azscoob a major brewery should be paying you royalties for this recipe. Thank you . I'm not going to reveal details from my tasting, just realize if your thinking of brewing this stop procrastinating ! Absolutely awesome!!!

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Thank you for the props! If I ever open a brewery, this on is in the rotation for sure!

Greetings. I realize this is an old thread, but I recently decided to brew this beer after reading the great descriptions in this thread. Thanks for all the info!

I pretty much brewed per the original recipe. I was just curious, since I have about a 1/2 oz. of Sorachi Ace left over, if you thought it would be worthwhile to dry hop with these, to add to the lemon/peppery flavors. Or would that just add too much?

I'm only about 4 days into fermentation, but I took a hydrometer sample and it's already halfway attenuated, and tastes great!

Thanks for any input.

GuitarGumption said:

Greetings. I realize this is an old thread, but I recently decided to brew this beer after reading the great descriptions in this thread. Thanks for all the info!

I pretty much brewed per the original recipe. I was just curious, since I have about a 1/2 oz. of Sorachi Ace left over, if you thought it would be worthwhile to dry hop with these, to add to the lemon/peppery flavors. Or would that just add too much?

I'm only about 4 days into fermentation, but I took a hydrometer sample and it's already halfway attenuated, and tastes great!

Thanks for any input.

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Give it a shot! Lemme know how it turns out

I think I may, though still not sure.

As everyone said, this yeast is amazing. One week and I'm down to 1.002! I started a little lower than original recipe, at 1.058, but wow!

I started off fermentation around 68, about a day later ramped to 72, another day 74 or so, then a few days at 76.

Do I want to keep letting it attenuate, or will it get too thin? I've never used a yeast like this before....

By the way, I didn't even pitch a starter, and it's down to that gravity already. I thought I must have some lead stuck to my hydrometer when I put it in the sample tube.

Just brewed this yesterday and all the signs were against me lol...

Got everything mashed and in the kettle ready to boil. Hooked up my propane tank, and when I went to turn the valve on... rut roh it was left on the last time I used the grill!!! Put the cover on the pot, disconnected the tank and took it to my grocery store right down the road. Guy got me a tank and as I was walking to the car I thought man this feels light... Turned the valve and nothing... empty tank. I run back into the store (it is starting to cloud up) and the guy prompty gets me a new tank again. I high tail it home, hook up the propane tank, get the lighter out of the drawer and nothing. Wife put the lighter back in the drawer empty. Thankfully I have matches that I use for my cigars. With a slight boom and some smoldering hairs on my hand it finally lit. Ok Im feeling better now its finally coming to a boil but boy its cloudy out... I add hops stir, add hops again stir, and head inside to get a drink. Oh what do you know the bottom fell out of the clouds. /facepalm. I run out, but the top back on the kettle and stand at the sliding glass door staring at my boil kettle helplessly sitting there in the rain. After about 25 mins it stops and I yank the top off to add hops again. From here on out it was rather smooth sailing but boy that was the worst brew day I have every had in almost 7 years of brewing.

About the beer though, tasted rather nicely as I tested OG. I also added an additional 8oz of light belgian hard candy sugar to the boil. I went with this addtion for 2 reasons... 1. The only Sorachi hops my LHBS had were at 11.6 AA, and the fugals were all at 5.3 as opposed to 4.75AA. 2. I wanted a bit more alcohol . There was a bit more of a hops taste than I wanted in the OG sample, but if it doesnt "clean" up a bit, Ill tweak it a bit more as I transfer to the secondary. So far I am loving how it is looking. OG came out to be 1.069.

Just over 24hrs in and the fermentation seems to have stalled.

Does this French Saison Yeast encounter the same issue that the Belgian does in that it is going to stall out on me if I do not keep it around 80 degrees?

If the answer is yes, how do you guys go about heating up your primaries? Heating pad wrapped in a towel? Its ranging anywhere from 50-75 degrees here in NC at the moment, and I definitely do not want to let me house get that warm .

I take it you are using the 3711 yeast? From everything I've read it does fine as long as it stays in the upper 60s or higher. Mine went like crazy starting around 68 and kept going.

To maintain temp, I put my carboy or corny keg in my 10 gallon brewpot, filled with water, then use an aquarium heater to set the temp.

Yes I am using 3711. I didnt think it needed to be anywhere near as high as the Belgian strain. My house stays around 70-72, so Im a bit confused as to why I only saw about a solid 24hrs of fermentation.

Update: had the wife pop the top of it and tell me what it looked like. Thick Krausen still she said with active bubbles. Ill check a gravity when I get home tonight and see where she is sitting.

Gonna brew this this weekend with one minor change. Adding chamomile tea. SWMBO had a chamomile saison she loved so I was tasked with brewing one. I'm stoked and will post results when its done. Cheers

Good luck brewing it! Checked the gravity today on this one since I was concerned about the yeast stalling but the gravity is down to 1.018 already. I just pitched the yeast at like 7pm Monday lol. Go go 3711! Popped the top this am to check it. Still actively bubbling but nothing is really going through my blow off valve. It was bubbling like mad the 1st 24hrs then stopped. Had me worried but its still kicking it seems.

Yea, mine with the 3711 was never extremely vigorous in appearance or bubbles, but the gravity kept dropping quickly anyway. Interesting stuff.

BrewLou said:

Good luck brewing it! Checked the gravity today on this one since I was concerned about the yeast stalling but the gravity is down to 1.018 already. I just pitched the yeast at like 7pm Monday lol. Go go 3711! Popped the top this am to check it. Still actively bubbling but nothing is really going through my blow off valve. It was bubbling like mad the 1st 24hrs then stopped. Had me worried but its still kicking it seems.

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The blow off valve, or airlock, are not the best measures of fermentation activity. Just give the yeast some time to do their job, then check the gravity. It sounds like your beer is well on its way. Cheers!

Pie_Man said:

The blow off valve, or airlock, are not the best measures of fermentation activity. Just give the yeast some time to do their job, then check the gravity. It sounds like your beer is well on its way. Cheers!

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I haven't used an airlock in I can't remember how long, I use a blowoff tube for fermentation, then swap it out for an S style airlock when crash cooling, it bubbles backwards so no suck back into the fermenter, nothing like having a half gallon of blowoff water sucked back into the carboy to remind you to swap over to the bubbler

azscoob said:

I haven't used an airlock in I can't remember how long, I use a blowoff tube for fermentation, then swap it out for an S style airlock when crash cooling, it bubbles backwards so no suck back into the fermenter, nothing like having a half gallon of blowoff water sucked back into the carboy to remind you to swap over to the bubbler

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I basically do the same thing. I suspect the other poster was relying on airlock activity to gauge fermentation.

Boiled up this recipe a couple of weeks ago and I have a couple questions. First off, I followed the recipe except I used Czech Saaz in place of the Fuggle (LHBS didn't have whole Fuggle) and I added a bit of fresh rosemary the last 5 minutes of the boil. OG was 1.056. Pittched at 72 degrees. It's been firmenting at 70 degrees for the last two weeks. I had a bit of blow off the first couple of days and it was steady firmentation the week after that. I'm still getting a pretty steady firmentation and wondered if anyone else has had this same thing happen.

The last beer I made was also a saison and did not take as long to ferment. I'm wondering if it's the honey in this receipt or perhaps since it's a different type of yeast.

Any thoughts?

bigherrm said:

Boiled up this recipe a couple of weeks ago and I have a couple questions. First off, I followed the recipe except I used Czech Saaz in place of the Fuggle (LHBS didn't have whole Fuggle) and I added a bit of fresh rosemary the last 5 minutes of the boil. OG was 1.056. Pittched at 72 degrees. It's been firmenting at 70 degrees for the last two weeks. I had a bit of blow off the first couple of days and it was steady firmentation the week after that. I'm still getting a pretty steady firmentation and wondered if anyone else has had this same thing happen.

The last beer I made was also a saison and did not take as long to ferment. I'm wondering if it's the honey in this receipt or perhaps since it's a different type of yeast.

Any thoughts?

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Take a gravity reading and see where it's at, I have often had this beer ferment out really fast, but bubble seemingly forever because of absorbed co2 from the fermentation process, the only sure way to know its done is to check the gravity with your hydrometer over a few days, when it's dead stable, it's done

Pie_Man said:

The blow off valve, or airlock, are not the best measures of fermentation activity. Just give the yeast some time to do their job, then check the gravity. It sounds like your beer is well on its way. Cheers!

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Oh I agree totally. I always keep an eye on the gravity, but I try to use the airlocks/blow off valves to get a rough idea.

Put this one into the 2ndary Sat afternoon. Gravity was an outstanding 1.005. Giving this another couple of weeks in the 2ndary to try and get those final couple of points to 1.003!

Tasted it again and it is NICE already. I was worried about all of the hops going into this, but so far everything is playing great together.

Going to bottle 12 in a couple of weeks and toss the rest in a keg! I need to have some people over to finish off either a watermelon wheat or my octopumpkinfest to free up keg room.

BrewLou said:

Oh I agree totally. I always keep an eye on the gravity, but I try to use the airlocks/blow off valves to get a rough idea.

Put this one into the 2ndary Sat afternoon. Gravity was an outstanding 1.005. Giving this another couple of weeks in the 2ndary to try and get those final couple of points to 1.003!

Tasted it again and it is NICE already. I was worried about all of the hops going into this, but so far everything is playing great together.

Going to bottle 12 in a couple of weeks and toss the rest in a keg! I need to have some people over to finish off either a watermelon wheat or my octopumpkinfest to free up keg room.

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This makes me happy, one of my recipes is well received, and often brewed!

You definitely have a solid saison here azscoob. I've been drinking it for a couple weeks now(bottle conditioned), SO GOOD! Mine has a apple cider/black cherry flavor to it, really different than anything I've ever had, store bought or homebrewed. Can't wait to bottle the other half of the batch that fermented with the belgian saison yeast.

Mckenzie said:

You definitely have a solid saison here azscoob. I've been drinking it for a couple weeks now(bottle conditioned), SO GOOD! Mine has a apple cider/black cherry flavor to it, really different than anything I've ever had, store bought or homebrewed. Can't wait to bottle the other half of the batch that fermented with the belgian saison yeast.

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Glad you like it! This was a recipe designed with the mindset of what would a farmer make, would he add countless spices, herbs, special candi sugars, and a dozen different malts? Or would he use what was on hand to brew a beer for himself and his workers while out in the fields working the land? I thought it would be something simple yet well rounded, simple is sometimes the right way to go.

azscoob said:

Glad you like it! This was a recipe designed with the mindset of what would a farmer make, would he add countless spices, herbs, special candi sugars, and a dozen different malts? Or would he use what was on hand to brew a beer for himself and his workers while out in the fields working the land? I thought it would be something simple yet well rounded, simple is sometimes the right way to go.

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I agree totally. My only comment on the above is that if a farmer gave his workers this, they might not get much work done lol. As high an ABV as mine will be, a few of these would not be condusive to working hard!

So far though thank you for an amazing recipe!

Edit: Checked gravity this am and it is all the way down to 1.003 holy cow! This might be going into the keg Sat/Sun if I have time to get it done! Didnt expect it to drop that quick after moving it over.

BrewLou said:

I agree totally. My only comment on the above is that if a farmer gave his workers this, they might not get much work done lol. As high an ABV as mine will be, a few of these would not be condusive to working hard!

So far though thank you for an amazing recipe!

Edit: Checked gravity this am and it is all the way down to 1.003 holy cow! This might be going into the keg Sat/Sun if I have time to get it done! Didnt expect it to drop that quick after moving it over.

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Going to brew tomorrow. This looks to be an amazing brew. No sorachi - I have either citra or nelson sauvin - any thoughts?

hbr2547 said:

Going to brew tomorrow. This looks to be an amazing brew. No sorachi - I have either citra or nelson sauvin - any thoughts?

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Azcoob -any thoughts on either